The Twelve Days of Christmas
by periodic-prose
Summary: Athrun tries to buy Cagalli the perfect present, based on her favorite carol. Then again, not all things CAN be perfect... [Oneshot]


**Quick run down for anyone unfamiliar with the song:  
  
On the twelfth day of Christmas,my true love sent to me...Twelve drummers drumming,Eleven pipers piping,Ten lords a-leaping,Nine ladies dancing,Eight maids a-milking,Seven swans a-swimming,Six geese a-laying,Five golden rings,Four calling birds,Three French hens,Two turtle doves,And a partridge in a pear tree...**

**This fic was inspired by this song. See what happens when Athrun tries to buy the perfect Christmas gift...**

Athrun sat in desperation on his best friend's couch. Only two weeks before Christmas and he had no idea what to get his dear wife. Considering this was going to be their first year together as a married couple, he had decided to get her something really special several weeks ago. Unfortunately, every time he thought of something and came to "Okay" it with Kira and Lacus, they well... rejected it.

Then again, an adopted child because she likes children, petting zoo because she likes animals, and 200 pounds of chocolate because she loves the stuff wasn't the most... brilliant idea in the world.

"Not that the chocolate isn't a nice idea Athrun..." Lacus tried to comfort him.

"It's just not very… feasible. I mean, what is she supposed to do with it?" Kira finished. Truthfully Athrun knew it wasn't a great idea either, but at this point, he was desperate. If he was going to get her something great, it would take time, and he was running out of it.

"How about this, stop saying no to MY ideas and start giving me yours." Athrun pleaded desperately.

"...How about we lead you in the right direction? What are her favorite things?" Lacus began, prodding him to think of a solution.

"...Children, animals, and chocolate." he responded in monotone. Kira sighed.

"How about something Christmas-y? What does she like about Christmas?"

"...Spending time with children, playing with animals, and eating choco-"

"No." the two judges standing before him cut him off curtly.

"Well... she likes carols..."

"There you go! You can make a CD of you singing carols or something."

"I sing about as well as a drunken hyena underwater." Athrun shot the idea down pessimistically.

"Buy a CD of her favorite carols? I think she likes that song 'The Twelve Days of Christmas'"

"I know, but that's not personal enough..." He sighed heavily. Suddenly his eyes widened. "That's it! I've got it!" He broke into a wide grin, snapping his fingers. "Thanks for your help guys, I'll see you later!"

And on that note, he dashed out the door, leaped into his car, and peeled out their driveway. Kira and Lacus blinked.

"Glad... to be of help?"

**On the first day of Christmas, my true love sent to me...**

"A parrot in a pine tree?" Cagalli stared at her odd gift in absolute bewilderment, as she eyed the strange and surreal sight before her. Turning towards her husband she raised an eyebrow. "Is there some sort of joke I'm missing here?..."

Athrun sighed and began to explain as best he could. "Well... "

_"You don't have a partridge?" Athrun asked desperately._

_The pet store owner shook her head sadly. "A lady just bought the last two."_

_"Well... What do you have left?"_

_"Any specifications?" She asked, trying to narrow down the search._

_"I suppose I'd like it to start with a P..." He thought, trying to remember the lyrics of the song._

_"I have a parakeet and a parrot, and an order of pigeons is on the way, probably going to arrive next week." _

_At the gardening store, a similar situation occurred, expect that he was scolded by the owner about expecting to find a pear tree in the dead of winter. _

_"Have you and idea how difficult it is to ship one of those things!" The elderly woman wagged a gardening glove at him. _

_"Well... I have an idea of how hard it is to find one..." He sighed._

**On the second day of Christmas, my true love sent to me…**

"Two fuzzy ducks?" Cagalli stared blankly at the yellow fluff balls quacking happily in front of her. "Let me guess..."

"The pet shop was also out of turtledoves..." Athrun explained feebly, trying to hide his face in his hands.

His wife patted him lightly.

'S_omething tells me this is going to be a long week...'_

**On the third day of Christmas, my true love sent to me…**

"Three French _bread_?" The blond representative picked up a baguette and raised it to her eye, inspecting it, and even flicking it to check if it was real.

"Yes, that is French bread." Athrun frowned at her obvious exaggeration.

"The pet shop didn't have any hens?"

"They only had English hens..." Athrun shrugged. "I wanted it to at least be French, so it was either bread or poodle puppies."

Cagalli raised an eyebrow, then looked at the bread again. Breaking it in half, she began to break it into pieces and feed the fuzzy ducks.

**On the forth day of Christmas, my true love sent to me...**

"Four barking dogs?"

"They weren't selling birds anymore when I got there..."

"Birds are that popular?"

"No, the dogs knocked over all the cages. Hence I got them at a bargain price." He confessed.

Cagalli turned to the furry yappers.

"My house is becoming a zoo..." She murmured.

**On the fifth day of Christmas, my true love sent to me...**

"Close your eyes." Athrun insisted excitedly.

"They are closed." Cagalli said impatiently.

"Okay then... Now open them."

"...Do I have to?" She asked warily.

"Don't you want to?" He sounded hurt.

"I'm not sure if I want to see this..." Taking her hands off of her eyes, she waited for her pupils to adjust to the light before clearly seeing:

"Hey!... Five golden rings!"

"Yeah I got it right for once." Athrun grinned proudly.

"Just one question, honey."

"What?"

"What am I supposed to do with five golden rings?"

"..."

**On the sixth day of Christmas, my true love sent to me...**

"Six lovebirds...?" Cagalli trailed off at a loss for words.

"Loving." Athrun finished.

"Loving?" She folded her arms in doubt.

"What else could they be doing?" He asked gesturing towards them.

"Chirping?"

"Geese-a-laying...Lovebirds chirping...That works too. But loving sounds better, doesn't it?" Athrun responded, after much consideration.

"It does... but I don't want to encourage them. I have enough birds as is." Cagalli sighed.

"Point taken..."

**On the seventh day of Christmas, my true love sent to me...**

Cagalli sighed. 'Why am I not surprised?...I really should be surprised...'

As in front of her, sat seven pigeons feeding happily on bird seed.

"How did you go from swans to pigeons?"

"...Pigeons were the only thing that they had 7 left of."

"I see..." She sighed, reaching for the last piece of French bread, and tossing it to them.

**On the eighth day of Christmas, my true love sent to me...**

"Eight maids a...mopping?"

"The dogs broke into the Kitchen, and also the maids refused to touch, much less learn how to milk a cow."

"You have cows?" Her eyebrows rose.

"I have cows." A firm nod.

"Eight?" Her eyes narrowed.

Another nod.

"Lord give me strength..."

**On the ninth day of Christmas, my true love sent to me...**

"Get out of my house! All of you!" Cagalli screamed, pushing a troop of nine giggling girls out the door. Angrily she glared at her husband.

"Hey, they were supposed to be the ladies dancing!" Athrun protested, picking himself off the floor after getting tackled and trampled dueafter beingasked for an autograph.

"Yeah, well those were fangirls fanning." Cagalli replied grumpily, lead Athrun protectively away from the door and motioning a maid to bolt it.

**On the tenth day of Christmas, my true love sent to me...**

"Am I not supposed to get ten lords a-leaping?" Cagalli teased, stepping through the entrance to their warm home.

"Over my dead body." Athrun frowned stubbornly.

"So then instead I get?..."

"Ten chefs a-cooking. Dinner will be ready in an hour." He answered sternly, firmly shutting the front door and locking it.

**On the eleventh day of Christmas, my true love sent to me...**

"Eleven...I don't even know what to call that." She shook her head in pity, watching ten female preformers dance around in her living room.

"Shakers shaking." He sighed defeatedly, once more hiding his face with his right hand.

"...Explain."

"Technically, they're maracas but for the sake of the song and rhyme, we'll call it shakers shaking."

**On the twelfth day of Christmas, my true love sent to me...**

"Twelve harpers harping..." Cagalli smiledin understandingand turned to Athrun.

"Sorry Cagalli... I got the drummers drumming, but they were so loud the staff complained, and all the birds were a racket, and the dogs started barking and... It was just a mess." He sighed, looking quite disappointed and dead-tired.

Expecting a scolding of some sort, he was taken aback as she burst out laughing hysterically, and fell to the floor. He stared for a moment, before a grin spread across his face rapidly, and he too was on the floor, barely able to breath from laughing so hard.

Clutching her stomach, Cagalli gently pulled herself up, with the aid of the sofa. "This is definitely the most bizarre series of gifts I've ever gotten."

"Yeah... I think I ended up getting you the petting zoo anyways."

"What?"

"Nothing."

Hugging him tightly, Cagalli beamed. "Thank you. It was very thoughtful of you. Now as for all the gifts..."

"Yes?"

"Return the parrot, the pine tree, the ducks, the… well the birds ate all the bread, the dogs, ...FOUR of the rings, the lovebirds, the pigeons, so that I will never had to see 8 maids mopping ever again. File a restraining order on the girls, hire the chefs to cook for dinner, return the maracas, and send away the harps." She finished, completely out of breath.

"You don't like my gifts?" Athrun faked a hurt expression.

"Of course I do... It's just that all I already got what I wanted this Christmas." She smiled happily.

"What was that?"

"My 'true love'" Cagalli grinned, happily being taken into his embrace.

"Can't say I'm opposed to that." Athrun smiled. And with that, he brought his lips down to hers.

**The final list of Athrun gifts;**  
****  
**Twelve harpers harping  
Eleven shakers shaking  
Ten chefs a cooking  
Nine fangirls fanning  
Eight maids a mopping  
Seven pigeons feeding  
Six lovebirds loving/chirping  
Five golden rings  
Four barking dogs  
Three French breads  
Two fuzzy ducks  
And aparrot in a pine tree...**

**Happy Holidays everyone!**


End file.
